Blog-ality Homemakeover 4

Tons to share this week. Can not believe how much has changed since last Monday. After talking to other Remodel Survivors, there's always these periods of crazy activity and then total slow downs.

Well, last week was full speed ahead. It started Monday morning with the floors finally going in. The boxes were opened and acclimated to our house since last Thursday. There was a bit of a scuffle when the installers didn't want to do a moisture check on the cement slab or lay a moisture barrier before laying the wood. REALLY??? We insisted and watched them pour this glue with a moisture component included called Mapie 995. Then the boards started flying. I was absolutely surprised how quickly they were able to get things going.

Within a half hour they had almost completed half the first room. Way cool! We left them to it while we went over to pick up our induction cooktop and pop up vent. We were gone for about three hours. Came home and couldn't open the front door. They had gotten the floors done so quickly that they went ahead and started on demo-ing the living/ dining room floors out. Something they weren't supposed to start until Wednesday. We had to scramble to pull our entire surround system apart and get the TV out of the way.

Now it's time for the cabinets to roll in. Tuesday morning started with not one pickup truck but two crammed full with our cabinets.

It was thrilling to watch them bring everything in and arrange it in the space. The kitchen is starting to look normal again, albeit different than what was there before.

Wednesday was granite template day. We drove out to the Rock Yard and had them place the framing pieces they put together Tuesday night up against the granite we chose. It is called Geriba Gold and works in a lot of the colors we have in the kitchen. It is so beautiful and has tons of movement. Playing with the framing was like putting a huge puzzle together. It was kinda fun!

By Friday it was ready to go in. I felt like dancing. I don't know how only two people were able to finagle all of those weighty rocks into the house, but they did it.

Definitely not without drama of course. As they are putting the pieces out, there's a problem with the cabinets. One side was 1/8th of an inch lower than the other side. It was a couple of tense minutes watching them while they tried to figure it all out. At the end they loosened the cabinet and slid it in. Then they couldn't slide the huge single sink piece into place. Can you imagine me cringing as they start shoving and gouging the dry wall until it goes in? Yeah, it was awful, but it's there.

Now it's time to fret over the island piece. The hole they cut just barely fit the cooktop and the pop up vent. They had to cut out these little side divets to make it fit. Only to discover that the pop up doesn't fit down into the cabinet correctly. There's this huge panel on the back that juts out like a little mountain. They have to carve out pieces of the cabinet backing to make it fit and then resupport it along the back. That's okay, though. The pop up is defective anyway and has to go back. It's bent and won't rise to its proper height. Never a dull moment.

Blog-ality Home Makeover 3

It's been a slow week. And I mean S  L  O  W. The workers came Monday morning to clean and patch up drywall and then they left at about 11 (leaving all the doors wide open mind you). And then nothing for the rest of the week.

They were supposed to start installing the brand new hardwood floors on Monday as well, but a certain kerfluffle involving warped boards sent our original order back to the warehouse. And sent us scrambling to locate a back up plan. NO one had what we were looking for. Lumber Liquidators has absolutely no stock on anything we tried. There latest TV commercials about the BIG SALE with tons of inventory? Lies. Bold outright lies. Well, if you want laminate flooring you are set for life. You want something real? Fah-ged-about-it!

We finally located a company in Tampa that had an engineered version of what we needed. We asked them to send us a sample so we could see what the top layer of flooring would look like. There was a brief moment when we almost ordered 65 boxes of a type that had a top layer so small I could break pieces off with my fingernail. We waited and waited for this sample to arrive. Even had a tracking number. When we saw that it was delivered to the wrong place...let's not go there.

Once we saw the sample and felt the layer was thick enough to not wear down pretty easily, we asked when they could ship it. This was last Thursday. They said it wouldn't go out until Monday. Which meant delivery on Friday of the following week. Umm, no. That would push our remodel completion date too far back. There was talk of flying me down to Tampa to rent a UHaul and drive this stuff back home BAH MAH self! The company suddenly decides it doesn't release product to the public, they only ship. So we wait, again.

It finally arrived on Thursday around noon.

And it's gorgeous! So  much variation in color between the boards that it will have a nice movement throughout the house. YAY! Oh wait, now it has to sit for five days and 'acclimatize' to our house.

The only other thing that happened to move this process further was the mantle for the fireplace showing up around 2 on Friday afternoon. We saw this neat design on line and the cabinet guy offered to make it for us. That was nice.

In the mean time. We paint. And paint. And paint. 2 hours each weekday. 4.5 on Saturday and a whopping 7 hours yesterday. Have I mentioned I don't like to paint?

Blog-Ality Home Makeover 2

Whew! First week of the renovation process is complete. That first day was a big change with everything being demoed. After that it sort of slowed down with little projects each day being started or finished.

Then began the agonizingly slow process of getting the tile grout up from the cement. They tried chipping it, they tried sanding it, then they decided to grind it down. Each taking a day at least. It's all off now. But everything is covered in a fine layer of dust despite the plastic seal they are using.

The next project was what will be forever known as the "Firewall." We have 17 foot cathedral ceilings with oversized windows on either side of the fireplace. Decided that would be a cool accent wall and bought some stacked stone:

They needed scaffolding to reach the top most peak. Little did I know how much I would come to hate that scaffolding. But the wall turned out amazing. It absolutely defines the space {HGTV speak for WOW Factor}.

We asked them to leave the {dreaded} scaffolding to save us the cost of renting our own so that we could paint the sloping ceiling and the support beam ourselves. Boy, oh boy. That not a day of fun.

Five hours with a 12 foot extender pole and a roller. I was completely covered in 'parmesan' paint. Then another four hours to paint the beam to mimic an exposed beam.

What a week!

Blog-ality Home Makeover

How do you like my made up word for the day? Blog-ality is fusing a little bit of that reality TV show craze I've been binging on for the last week and some blogging to share it all with you!

I think it would be so cool to appear on one of those Home Fix It shows that I love: Flip or Flop, Love it or List it, Elbow Room, Yard Crashers. But sadly, no matter how many times I've been in Home Depot no one has approached me with a surprise backyard. Pooh.

That's not going to stop me though! G and I have lived in our current home for the past 14 years. When we bought it the countertops and cabinets were already there. We decided to overlook that and choose flooring and lighting. Since we were transplanted from California and had two dogs we choose some terra cotta tiles and berber carpeting. After the dogs passed we realized just how dirty the carpeting had become. Ugh. It was time to upgrade {or move}. Since the housing market hasn't woken up completely, it was stay here.

We contacted a few designers for a quote. After visiting with them for a few weekends we opted for RCD Designs. They really responded to our needs and were extremely prompt in returning all questions and requests. Many weekends of gazing at granite and touching floor samples ensued.

Now, five months later, the fated day had arrived. It was time to start. I won't go on about how long it took me to pack everything up and move it to other side of the house. I'm just happy the waiting has stopped. Three men came in and immediately started ripping old plywood cabinets off the walls. YAY!

I've been snapping away as they moved through the house. As they do their thing we've been redoing some other projects as well. Including ripping off wallpaper that had been applied directly to the dry wall. SPOILER ALERT: This is not fun! It took four days to complete and repaint a nice medium brown.

Here are some shots of the demo so far. They completely gutted the cabinets, appliances {going to Habitat for Humanity}, and a small island. The mantle came off the fireplace and will be replaced with stacked stone all the way to the ceiling.

 

 

 

Now they are pulling all of the 1300 sq. ft. of tile off the floor. It's a bit noise. 

Monday Meet Up - June 30

Wow! Teaching Tribune is ROCKING it with the linky's this year. Monday's are all about meeting up with some new faces and checking in on the old ones you haven't seen since last summer.

 

Here are three things that I am thankful for right now.

No more back pain! I've just had my tenth 'adjustment' and I no longer have that broken rib feeling and my lower back isn't so tight. Love it!

 

 

Summer. These lazy hazy days are such a great way to recharge before the chaos that is school begins again (in 28 days mind you).

 

 

 





 A creative mind. I am one week away from a total kitchen remodel and my brain just won't quit with ideas. I'm knee deep in paint samples and thinking about creating floating shelves and maybe a chalkboard menu board for the dining room.

What are you thankful for this week?

Tried and True - Saving Fred

Teaching Tribune is at it again with some really fun linky's!. Thursdays are about connecting with other bloggers to highlight those really great lessons that always work in your room.

It made me think of a lesson I have been doing for about three years now. Saving Fred is always a big hit with the kids. I did a whole write up on it from last year. So I'm going to do what I {heart} Recess is doing and combining this linky with the Throwback Thursday linky.

Check out what Fred is all about at here.

Worksheet Wednesday -Summer Verbs in Action!

Sitting on the couch watching really bad SyFy movies (Blast Vegas) and scrolling through Bloglovin, I come across a fun little Linky Party happening over at Teaching Tribune.

The theme was Summer so I put together a sheet that will eventually make it into a larger pack on Verbs. This one is using Irregular Verbs and includes some sentence writing at the end. Just for y'all I made it completely FREE! Click on the picture below to download it from my TpT store.

Hope you enjoy it.

Tried it Tuesday - Comprehension & Technology

For my Tried it Tuesday, I'm jumping the gun and delving into a teaching manual.

Kristin Ziemke was recently a keynote speaker at a staff development I attended. She's a first grade teacher in Chicago and teamed up with another favorite author, Stephanie Harvey, to create the Connecting Comprehension and Technology teacher manual.

From the Heinemann website:
“Technology does not make teaching better, only teachers do that. However, technology can challenge us to reflect on and enrich our instruction in a variety of meaningful ways. We collaborated on this book to support teachers in active literacy environments to envision and reimagine how technology can enhance children’s learning.”—Stephanie Harvey, Anne Goudvis, Katie Muhtaris, and Kristin Ziemke

She made such a great presentation about using technology in her classroom. Now granted her school has a set of tablets that they share so at times she can have a whole class set to do these things with. I can see how it would work with a few tablets or a small group set. These first graders in an inner city school were blasting away my fourth graders in their insights and comprehension skills. It was amazing.

Just watching her students comment LIVE as she is reading a text on things they notice thrilled me to the core. I think technology has a place in the classroom and the way that Kristin was showing us struck the right cord with me! Her students had Twitter accounts where they corresponded with NASA or oceanographers on boats off of Hawaii. One of her students became a impromptu weather forecaster when he was stranded during Hurricane Sandy. He took videos of damage and posted it online with his running commentary. It was awesome.

I quickly bought the book and am reading it to see how I can start it off with my new class in August. One of the quotes really sticks out:

"It's essential to ground your technology use in authentic and essential skills that students need."

The book is broken up into four lessons for each strand. The first two are for primary elementary and the latter are intermediate. Then the first lesson in each level is a basic skill while the second delves into a higher thinking skill. Each is a complete scripted teacher dialogue with student interactions.

The strategies offered raise the comprehension standards throughout the book. They include monitoring comprehension, activating and connecting to text, asking questions, inferring and visualizing, determining importance, and summarizing and synthesizing.

What I like is they have tons of technological ideas but they don't expect you to do EVERY single one of them. They want you to use your professional intelligence (imagine) to decide which your students actually need and become proficient in their use. That's sometimes my problem. I want to do it all. Maybe this will get me to slow down and really delve into one idea so that students can use them without having to think.

I'll keep you posted on how the reading is going. Happy Tuesday!

Made it Monday - Goodbye Kitchen

Another moment to share a Monday Made it!

It's coming! It's coming! The day of the kitchen remodel is only TWO WEEKS away! I've been busy boxing up stuff and moving it all to the other side of the house. I never knew I had so much stuff! But in honor of 14 years in the old kitchen I wanted to throw one last goodbye.

I immediately thought of my BBB Jivey as the one person who hasn't had the treat of my mad cooking skills. Her and her fiancé came over last Tuesday to help send off the old kitchen in style. I poured through my Bon Appetit magazine for food ideas and found tons!

I started off the night with a little adult beverage called a Peach Cosmo. It was so summery and delicious, we had to make more!

 

 

Then it was on to the charcuterie and cheese board. There were slices of proscuitto and sweet salami. Along with some brie, blue cheese, and a special 1000 day old gouda I found. Although I misspoke and called it 1000 year old cheese. Which sounds nasty, but Jessica saved my faux pas by saying it must have been made in 1941 then. Hmm. Future Math Coach?

 

Oh, there is also these fun goat cheese, garlic, and chive stuffed tomatoes. Wasn't long before it was all gone!

 

 

Next course was a summer peach and burrata caprese salad. It was drizzled with olive oil and tarragon. Burrata is this super creamy cheese that is firm mozzarella on the outside wrapped around this creamy curd center. I had to go to three different stores to find such a thing. Didn't care about that after one taste!

 

 

For dinner I seared some scallops with some toasted hazelnuts and cherry tomatoes. There are some crushed red and golden beets served in a lemon vinaigrette and a dollop of Greek yogurt. There's fresh dill on top of it all. Yes, yes. Clean plates all around.

 

 



I whipped up a little chocolate covered cheesecake bite as a final flourish. The night ended with smiles all around and talk of the New Kitchen send off!

Five For Friday - June 20

 

 

Lazy summer days full of laying by the pool and watching past seasons of True Blood. Life is good. Here's a few things I managed to get off the couch for. 

 

 

Monday started off with some bad news. I finally broke down and went to the chiropractor because my back had been hurting for a month. After X-rays, it turns out I have not one, but TWO herniated disks. I got my first 'adjustment.' It was such a creepy sound hearing him crack my back and my neck. Doc had to keep telling me to relax before he snapped something. So Freaky! But my back does feel better.

 

 

 

Tuesday I spent shopping for a burrata and other essentials for a dinner party for tomorrow. Then I worked for two hours prepping and baking things including a really delicious jicama salsa and skirt steak tacos. Yum!

Wednesday was busy. I had set up my first Summer Lunch Bunch earlier. Then went ahead and double booked myself for a dinner party on the same day. Oof. I ran in town to hang out with my good pal Christina and her beautiful babies. Sadly, Krisy couldn't join us this time. After lunch I ran home to start whipping up dinner for our last dinner party in the 'old' kitchen. Here's Jessica and Mike waiting for some food! (Check out my post on Tuesday to see what all I cooked up!)

 

 

 

 Thursday was a day to definitely relax. But more sad news came along. Turns out I had a virus on my brand new laptop and had to spend two hours on the phone with Dell Support. Hopefully it's all taken care of now! I placated my sadness with some serious pool time. It was perfect just hanging out reading Divergent and listening to tunes. Back at home I was able to whip through the rest of my school project. I finished my chair pockets!

Friday was the day I decided to take down the doghouse. It's been almost two years since our fur babies have left us. The doghouse was just taking up tons of space on our smaller than small patio. It was time. Yeah, it wasn't an easy start. I start pulling off boards and unleash a wave of very angry wasps. Whee! I ran over to Home Depot to pick up three cans of wasp spray. It kills on contact. I took care of that problem and took out my frustrations with a hammer to dismantle the doghouse. It was a bittersweet moment when it was all done.

 

 

 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Enjoy your weekend!

Tried it Tuesday - Singapore Math

I'm joining in on Holly's Tried it Tuesday linky party.


Have you heard of this new math model? Our school had a staff development on Singapore Math last year, but it was after school until late, so I couldn't stay. Those who did take it said it was really great. So when I saw it offered in our summer workshop sessions through the county I jumped at it. Granted it was only an  hour and a half instead of the full 8 hour session, but I managed to get some good stuff out of it!

The instructor focused mainly on problem solving using this method. There were seven steps to follow.

Give the students an exemplar such as:

Itty and Bitty were doing their daily jumping jacks. Itty did 8 of them. Bitty did 4 times as many as Itty. How many jumping jacks did they do all together?

The students work through the following steps on paper or in their math journals.

You can see my attempt at solving this problem from the class today.

There were some great points that I noticed today. Students write the #1 next to the story problem to prove that they've read the entire problem first.

For #3 when they are trying to find the most important things, help them see that people's names or other extraneous information isn't necessary to solve the problem.

#4 when deciding on what 'unit' to pick as a representation in your drawing, you can only use information gathered from the actual story problem. Keep in mind that 'unit' DOES NOT always equal one. In subtraction problems 'unit' could stand for the whole amount.

#5 you can see me drawing bars out to solve and then 'adjusting them' on the right hand side to put them together into more of a bar model approach.

If students give you a three addend equation, like in #6, discuss with them which of the steps do they want to do first. Then explain how to use parenthesis to show the reader what to do first.

Students are then graded using a rubric where they get one point for each accurately followed step. They receive a 5 for following all directions correctly. They would receive only a 1 if they just list the answer as 40. So they can still get points even if they do not arrive at a correct answer. The effort is still rewarded.

I like this idea and can't wait to try it with my new students!

Disclaimer: I understand my knowledge of this is very rudimentary, so if y'all have used this and have tips, tricks, and/or suggestions I'd love to hear them. Comment, comment, comment.